I've been thinking about the concept of Jewish-blessing prayers again. (You can read my first rambling on it here.)
The idea is simple, throughout my day, whenever I see something that prompts my prayers, I will utter a short (one sentence) prayer praising God.
Side Tangent: Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg introduced me to this idea in their book Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith. Lois Tverberg expands more on the Jewishness of Jesus in her next book Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus can Change Your Life. It is fascinating to be shown Jesus in the context of a 1st century Jewish Rabbi, instead of in the context of a modern Christian preacher.
A blessing-prayer is a praise; it's a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Pages 92-98 of Spangler & Tverberg's book gives many examples of these prayers, but they are easy to invent as well. Hebrew4Christians, Tverberg, Tverberg, another blogger, and another blogger have many examples of blessing-prayers for many, many occasions.
What am I thankful for?
Delicious strawberries? I should thank God for them.
Beauty in nature? I should thank God for it.
Eating bread? I should thank God for it.
God met my needs? I should thank God for that.
I have money for ______? see above.
Thunder in a storm? I should thank God.
Reaching a special day? I should thank God.
Seeing a rainbow? I should thank God.
Seeing the ocean? I should thank God.
When traveling far away? I should thank God.
Returning from travel, getting better after sickness, released from prison, safety from natural disasters? I should thank God.
When it's raining or I'm getting dressed or other events? I should thank God.
Seeing lightning? I should thank God.
And when something goes wrong, there's a blessing prayer for that.
Little prayers throughout the day to foster my thankfulness. I like the sound of that.
You may think that this blog title comes from 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman, but I actually got it from Psalm 103.
What are you thankful for? Have you thanked the giver of what you are thankful for?
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